Intentions to Marry, 1868

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840380, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 579

District of Quarter ending

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
228	20 November 1868	Charles Becles Janet Bristous	Charles Eccles Janet Bristow 💍 1868/8822	Bachelor Widow	Butcher	22 24	Dunedin Dunedin	6 years 14 yrs	In the house of David Robertson Russell Street Dunedin	2057	20 November 1868	Rev. A. R. Fitchett
229	21 November 1868	Joseph Thomas Martha Moss	Joseph Thos Chas Cox Martha Moss 💍 1868/10216	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	25 22	Dunedin Dunedin	10 days 3 days	In the house of Mr. Robert Murray Rattray Street Dunedin	1921	21 November 1868	Rev. W. Oliver
230	21 November 1868	Henry Hogg Elizabeth Anderson	Henry Hogg Elizabeth Anderson 💍 1868/8915	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Servant	28 27	Dunedin Dunedin	2 weeks 8 months	In the house of Mrs W. B. Gilbie Roslyn	2089	21 November 1868	Rev. J. Sutherland
231	23 November 1868	Hector McLeod Isabella Ross	Hector McLeod Isabella Ross 💍 1868/8819	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	28 24	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 5 weeks	In Knox Church Dunedin	2056	23 November 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
232	23 November 1868	Thomas Thompson Helen Ritchie	Thomas Thompson Ritchie Helen Ritchie 💍 1868/8825	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Agent	30 25	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 4 weeks	In the house of Mr. J. Cargill Green Island	2058	23 November 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
233	27 November 1868	Peter Clark Margaret Grant	Peter Clark Margaret Grant 💍 1868/8828	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor	29 28	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 months	In the house of John Grant Pelichet Bay - Dunedin	2059	27 November 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
234	28 November 1868	Daniel McHambridge Emily Paul	Daniel McCambridge Emily Faul 💍 1868/10147	Bachelor Spinster	Surgeon	38 20	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 1 week	In St. Pauls church Dunedin	1898	28 November 1868	Rev. E. G. Edwards
235	28 November 1868	James Mackay Agnes Millan	Agnes Millar Agness Millan 💍 1868/8831	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	42 21	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 18 months	In the house of Peter Hannah Queen Street Dunedin	2060	28 November 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).